Michael Brenner of Marketing Insider Group  is Forbes' top CMO influencer and he wrote a best-selling book called The Content Formula in which he elaborates four key trends to which companies should adhere to deliver relevant and powerful content.

#1 Specialisation: Talk about what you know and stick to it. For example, here at Passle, we try to talk about content marketing as much as possible so as to reinforce our subject matter expertise in this area. It is pretty difficult to mimic somebody else's specialisation and expertise, so be authentic.

#2 Visualisation: It's important to give the reader something tangible to hold on to. Blogging is, of course, a more tactile & permanent demonstration of knowledge but supplement this with useful videos, infographics and charts to help your audience engage and keep things fresh.

#3 Humanisation: As I wrote about in an earlier post, Hewlett Packard Enterprise found that their personalised, non-branded content received x8 more engagement than the generic, HPE branded content. This was because it came from an individual rather than the organisation and had a personal, human touch to it. 

#4 Personalisation: So the Human aspect involves sharing personal insight. When this can then be tailored for a select number of clients or prospects, it becomes immensely powerful. How might you do this? Personal insight which is relatable and from a trusted source is infinitely more powerful than generic, catch-all content. Write for those select number of people who know & trust you, and who you can feasibly influence. How?

• Relate a piece of content back to what was said in the meeting OR what a specific contact has been mentioned for in the press. 
• Write about what a target organisation is doing in their field and share your own insights on it all. Create a piece of content which adds value to your relationship.
• This personalised and relevant touch is the final flourish on a well orchestrated piece of content. When written for a specific individual or organisation, expert-led content reinforces the conversations we have face-to-face and when delivered at the right time, it can be an incredibly powerful tool in the salesperson's arsenal.